Event    From 2/9/1666  To 6/9/1666

Great Fire of London

Categories: Tragedy

Started on a Sunday morning. After 4 days the destruction included:
- an area of one and a half miles by a half mile
- 87 churches
- 13,200 houses
- only 6 people are recorded as having died (but see Londonist)
- the Great Plague of 1665 was also brought to an end by the fire, possibly.

The fire started in the house and shop of the baker Thomas Farynor in Pudding Lane. The site is now marked by the Monument. But at the time many suspected a Papist plot and Robert Hubert obligingly claimed to have started the fire. He was a Frenchman who was not even in the country at the time but that did not save him from the scaffold.

At the time of the fire England was at war with the French and the Dutch and, during the fire, some people thought it was the French invading, others attacked a Dutch baker blaming him. Rumours about the cause rumbled on for years. Thomas Farriner (spellings differ) swore it was not his fault. Was it God's punishment? Was it the Catholics? A great resource for this topic is The Great Fire of London

2016: a Telegraph article reports on an article in 'Country Life'. The exact location of the start of the fire has now been identified: "Those plans, combined with measuring 202 feet from the Monument itself, show that the oven was located on what is now the cobbled surface of Monument Street, 60 feet east of Pudding Lane."

The rebuilding of London used stone from the west, Oxfordshire/Berkshire, brought by river. Once unloaded the barges were filled with rubble which was taken back up river and dumped on the various islands in the river, including Monkey Island, raising the level of the ground and providing solid foundations for buildings.

In 2016, to mark the 350th anniversary, the artist David Best was commissioned to create a model of London and set it on fire.

Most of the memorials to the Great Fire refer to buildings that were lost; we have found only one that celebrates a building that survived. But quite a few survived - Spitalfields Life displays some lovely drawings of many buildings that survived until at least c.1800.

London has had other very big fires: Tooley Street and see Londonist for others. And Londonist drew our attention to this great article in The Guardian listing the buildings lost. And the buildings that survived? Londonist again.

September 2023: Londonist reported on new research which names Thomas Dagger (Farriner's employee) as the first person to raise the alarm.

2024: Historical researchers now believe the site of the start of the fire to be in Monument Street, amongst the parked vehicles on the south side of the street to the east of the Monument. And we learnt that wattle and daub, if well maintained is extremely resistant to fire, but very flammable if poorly maintained, as one might expect in many of the properties in the City at this time.

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Great Fire of London

Commemorated ati

Alienation Office

"Act 5 and 6 Will. IV.Cap.82" refers to a legal instrument created during the...

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Building survived the Great Fire

Londonist points out how important correct use of English can be: "This was n...

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Cannon Street Station

The Sir John Hawkshaw Cannon Street Station was officially opened by South Ea...

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Crosskey's Inn

Site of Crosskey's Inn, destroyed 1666. The Corporation of the City of London

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Cutlers' Hall

Site of Cutlers' Hall, 1416 - 1883, rebuilt after the Great Fire 1666. The C...

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Show all 55

Other Subjects

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Hammersmith war dead

Hammersmith servicemen who were killed in both world wars.

Group, Armed Forces, Tragedy

1 memorial
Sapper McLaren

Sapper McLaren

Royal Engineer killed by an exploding bomb while assisting in the attempt to disarm it. Andrew Behan has kindly carried out some research on this man: Sapper Edward McLaren was born about 1918 in ...

Person, Armed Forces, Tragedy, Scotland

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1 memorial
William Huskisson

William Huskisson

Huskisson is famous for being the victim of the first fatal railway accident (not quite true), being run over by the train known as Stevenson's Rocket, at the opening ceremony of the Manchester to ...

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Alistair Gordon

Alistair Gordon

Alistair Gordon was born in 1942, the youngest of the three children of John Gordon (1901-1988) and Elizabeth Margaret Gordon née MacIntosh (1905-1986). His birth was recorded in the 1st quarter of...

Person, Tragedy

1 memorial

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World War 1

We'd always assumed that this war was known as the Great War until WW2 came along at which point it was renamed as World War One or the First World War. But the term was first used in print in 1920...

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402 memorials
Notting Hill Housing Trust

Notting Hill Housing Trust

A social enterprise and charity providing affordable housing for Londoners. It was founded by Bruce Kenrick who had moved to Notting Hill in 1963 (which was then a far cry from the desirable area i...

Group, Property, Social Welfare

2 memorials
Greenwich Historical Society

Greenwich Historical Society

From the Picture source: "The Greenwich Historical Society began life as the Greenwich Antiquarian Society in 1905, merging with the Lewisham Society in 1919 to become the Greenwich and Lewisham An...

Group, Community / Clubs, History

1 memorial
Chewbacca

Chewbacca

A character in the Star Wars series. He is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk, and is the loyal friend and first mate of Han Solo. He was portrayed in the films by the 7' 3" tall actor Peter Mayhew.

Person, Cinema, Fictional

1 memorial
Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation

Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation

From their website: "The Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation is a non-profit, volunteer organization. The purpose of the Society is to identify and recognize sites of American Jewish ...

Group, Community / Clubs, History, USA

6 memorials